Key Advice To Small Business Owners During These Challenging Times By David W. Smith

What is your key advice to small business owners during these challenging times? And what steps should they take to keep their small business afloat during the current crisis?

In March, the climate for enterprises worldwide entered an unplanned and much unwelcome era, the COVID-19 pandemic.  Almost overnight, 3.4 million Canadians began to work remotely as we embraced physical distancing in our lives, impacting education, entertainment, social/sporting activities, shopping, and so much more.  It has provided time to think about the essentials and devise our ‘pivot’ strategy. Accordingly, there are many crucial decisions behind us already or are yet to come.

Having facilitated hundreds of hours in individual and group sessions in the past six months, I’ve gleaned insights into the priorities in business leaders’ minds and hearts.  Here is my synthesis:

First, take advantage of your freed-up time from less travel or canceled activities (conferences, networking, etc.) to do all those things you’ve wanted to do.  Invest in ‘working on’ your business since you may not be as busy ‘working in’ your business.  Next, look for niches in the market that aren’t being served well during this time – is there a way to help them?  For us, it meant establishing a new national company to help leaders navigate through the challenges of virtual leadership with newly formed remote teams.

I would also encourage everyone to focus on hope continually and the positives, mainly what you can do and not what you can’t do so you have healthy boundaries.  Finally, embrace others’ wisdom, ask for the help of a mentor, coach, advisor, even a friend. Now is not the time for one’s ego or independence to stand in the way of moving towards a different future, which will undoubtedly arrive.

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David has over 30 years of experience as an organizational leader and a decade as a 120certified executive coach, facilitator, and management consultant. He has served as a corporate executive (CEO), business owner and entrepreneur in multiple start-ups in different industries to one of Canada’s ’50 Best Managed Companies’. In 2010 he founded Logia Consulting Inc. and in 2020, co-founded Virtual Leadership Matters Inc. Prior to that he was on the founding leadership team of two Canadian financial services companies. No stranger to virtual leadership, Dave has led and coached teams spread across Canada for over 20 years. He is an accomplished speaker, facilitator, and writer with national/international experience.